Eleven33 - Chasing Light

In 2014, after having taken a break from writing anything new for a while, Rob began to sketch and work on ideas he had recorded on the acoustic guitar or piano. There was a ton of inspiration for the new material as well. That year, he saw several close family and friends deal with some serious adversity in their lives. It was just a tough, emotionally draining year on so many fronts, but there were bright spots as well.

Despite the adversity, there was always one shining, consistent theme that came through with these people: their ability to get back up after being knocked down and to find a light amidst the darkness. A lot of times, we just want to cave in and give up. The strength and desire to thrive that Rob saw in these people was incredibly inspiring … so much so, that he began to write music around that theme and that’s where "Chasing Light" came from.

“Chasing Light” is all about resiliency, resolve, determination to thrive, and the quest for “good” despite all the negative things around us. It’s about dealing with and responding to adversity. While he has his own personal connection to each track, Rob’s hope is that people who hear this record can relate to the themes the music conveys and apply it to something they’re going through in life.

The tracks are sequenced in a way that take the listener on a journey and there’s a real flow to it all … Innocence, hope, heartbreak, darkness, resilience, and triumph all play a part in telling the story.

In addition to the music, the artwork used for the album is equally inspiring. Collaborations with four very talented landscape photographers: Jonathan Besler, Dominic Kamp, Nicholas Buer, and Szabolcs Zsoldos … added so much to the project. “How do you tell a story with music without words?” Rob wanted to take that same challenge with the artwork as well … “How do you convey the emotions of people without pictures of people?” Rob’s vision succeeded in matching dramatic landscape photos to each track in order to help drive home the story of human emotion captured in “Chasing Light.”

Rob Fleming on the recording of Chasing Light, “I do everything myself. Writing, playing the instruments, recording, producing, engineering, etc. That can have its challenges! It can be very lonely creating music this way and I hope to collaborate with other talented musicians to create something special one day. The advantage to working alone is that I’m not pressured or rushed into decisions and I never have arguments with myself! I’m a perfectionist when it comes to recording the performance. In fact, the writing/composition part is much easier for me than recording. But once I’m focused on an idea, things happen naturally. My favorite moments of the recording process come when I’m able to really capture the essence of the emotion I’m trying to convey through the music and I don’t have to work very hard at all to write the part and record it. I love it when I would be working on an idea and before I knew it, it was 3:00 AM and I didn’t even notice ... just getting lost in it all. The biggest thrill for me is when random mistakes turn into big ideas.